by Britt Ryan | Oct 16, 2020 | Today in Music History
Joseph Lee “Big Joe” Williams, born in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, on this day in 1903 (or maybe 1899), is famous for his nine-string guitar, for mentoring a young Muddy Waters and for being the guy who popularized the song “Baby Please Don’t Go” (1935)...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 15, 2020 | Today in Music History
“A belle of the blues with a head for business and a visceral gift as a songwriter, Victoria Spivey enjoyed a long career that took her from the role of ingenue to that of queen mother” — performing with such legendary artists as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Louis Armstrong...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 14, 2020 | Today in Music History
Gravedigger, sculptor and American Delta blues musician James “Son” Thomas was “a Mississippi bluesman to the core,” according to his writeup at AllAboutBluesMusic.com. “His guitar playing, with its vigorous boogies and delicate fingerpicking passages, and his...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 13, 2020 | Today in Music History
Jazz pianist Art Tatum (1909-1956) was said to be so good that even such classical virtuosos as Vladimir Horowitz and Sergei Rachmaninoff came to see him play. Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1909, Tatum, though legally blind and largely self-taught, became known as one of...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 12, 2020 | Food
My main focus as Executive Chef of The Labrie Group is trying to develop relationships with local farms. It’s interesting, because I assumed moving to the Seacoast, in the economic hub of New Hampshire, that it would be far easier than it was up North for me during my...
